The Bastard
by Vahkhiin
Summary: She couldn't think of a more better way to describe him after reading the letter she found in his bed side table. Tony/Pepper


**A/N: **So...anyway, I was clearing out a few files for the new year and I ran into this story I apparently typed up some time last year. It's quite fluffy and all that but ah why not just post it up eh? So anyway, enjoy... :)

* * *

_My dear Pepper, _

_I must have started off a dozen letters with an apology and really when I think about it there's nothing else I really have to say other than how sorry I am for everything I have ever put you through. But I know how much you hate job hunting, so for the record and the purpose of this letter, let me just say that everything is yours. _

_I'm sorry I never got the chance to be a man enough to tell you that I love you. I know it's pointless for you to know now but that is the one thing I've always wanted to tell you. I just didn't know how. _

_There's something about you that's beyond mortal comprehension. It's something that crosses the stars and lingers in the sky. I know, I'm being too philosophical here. But what can I say? You really do make me feel like I belong somewhere. It's strange really but with you I feel like I'm better, like I can do anything I want to do. _

_And just for the record, when I was stuck in that cave in Afghanistan, the only thing that kept me going was you. I wanted to come home because I felt that I owed you an explanation. I never gave you one, partly because I didn't get to it and also because I didn't quite know what exactly I was feeling. But now I do. _

_I have always loved you ever since the first day you stepped into my office. And believe it or not but you were the only one that picked out that error in the recruiter's test. You were the only one who saw it. That's why I hired you. Because I needed somebody who could see all the minuscule errors, someone who could pick it all up with a glance. And little did I know you'd be doing that for me for the next decade. _

_I'm eternally grateful for your assistance and now I've just made you CEO, so I suppose that truly shows what you mean to me. But just one other thing before I sign off this letter. I haven't said it yet and it's almost the end of the letter so I'll say it now. _

_I'm dying from palladium poisoning and I have tried every single combination, every single way to fix it and cure myself. But I can't find any. So for the first time in history, Tony Stark is at a lost and the only thing I can think about doing is writing this for you because you're all I have and you're all that matters to me. _

_I've given you everything I have. As for the company, it is yours anyway seeing as I've made you CEO. But all the partnering shares I own will be yours. So technically and officially, the entire company is yours and yours alone. I know if I were alive right now you'd slap me senseless for doing such a foolish thing, but I really don't have anybody else. You're all I have. _

_As for the suits, Mark 1, 2, 3, 4 and the latest, 5, they are all yours. The house is yours, Jarvis is yours. I programmed him to only accept instructions from you so nobody has access to my personal servers except you. To sum it up really, everything that I own is yours. My money, the cars, etc, all yours. It's in the will and I'm sure the lawyers will go through it all with you. But I just thought I'd give you a heads up so you won't faint when you hear it. I know you will and probably scold my grave stone but like I said, you really are all I've got. _

_Take care of Jarvis for me. He won't understand because let's face it he isn't programmed too. But for a long time he was my only friend. Kind of ironic I know. _

_I love you, Pepper, I always will. I'm sorry I never told you and for that I will always regret eternally. _

_You're all I have. _

_Love always, _

_Anthony Edward Stark_

_

* * *

_

She was dumbfounded, startled and completely surprised. She was just trying to find a pen in his bed side table and little did she know she'd stumble across this abomination. This vile letter of brutal honesty. It was as if he had taken his entire heart and imprinted it on the creased paper to give to her because he didn't know how else to give it to her.

The bastard.

Sometimes he really had no clue on the basics of human nature. Of how confessions are made and how lovers are left dwelling in what could be and what could have been. Sometimes she just wanted to pummel him and slap him senseless for being so incredibly dense. She huffed loudly as she gathered the letter into her hands and started toward the door of their room.

It had been approximately three months since that episode. The week where he had apparently been dying and had the decency to not tell her. She occasionally reminded him about it and she was sure he would never, not tell her again. She was sure because right now she was going to kill him so it didn't matter anyway.

She started down the steps, her hands scrunched at her sides ready to punch him. She rounded the corner of the chilly hallway and haphazardly punched in the code in the number pad. She spotted him standing at the pedestal with half a dozen robotic metallic hands sticking out holding parts of his Ironman suit. He was busily attending to a particular wire, tightening and twirling with his eyes completely focused. He hadn't even noticed her and she was really going to throw something at his head now.

She contemplated whether she should have picked up the Ironman helmet that sat on the table and throw it at him before he turned and beamed a smile.

"Pepper, you're home..."

"I can't believe you," she hurled at him like a fiery ball of mass destruction.

He blinked and mumbled, "I'm not sure-"

"Oh yes you do," she retorted as she thrust the paper toward him. "What is the meaning of this?"

He blinked again and skimmed the lines of the paper. "Oh..."

"OH...? Oh is all you have to say?"

"I really meant to get rid of that," he protested, "I'm not dying anymore as you know. That was before and besides you know I love you now anyway so-"

"That's not the point, Tony I-"

"I wanted you to know and I didn't want to die without you knowing at least," he explained and stepped toward her. "So I wrote that as the last resort should I not find any other cure."

"But that's-"

"Pepper," he smiled warmly and slipped his hands at either side of her elbows, "I love you and nothing's changed. I'm sorry you had to read that letter, you weren't supposed to unless I really did die of palladium positioning which I'm not anymore so that letter is technically invalid...But not my feelings of course because I still love you entirely and completely."

"But everything?" she murmured. "You're giving me everything."

He blinked again as if indifferent to her question. "Yeah so?"

"But that's..."

"Pepper, I love you and I trust you, heck, I gave my company to you already," he explained with a lingering smile, "I told you already, you're all I have and I mean that. You really are all I've got..." he tilted his head a little and grinned, "Unless of course we have children then well, they'll get some too but for now it's just you."

"But Tony-"

"Happy's got a bit as well and Rhodey too, I figured they were in our little circle of friendship so it would be unfair to have left them out. But you're getting the majority of it."

"I can't believe-"

"Is it so hard to believe that I'd trust you with everything?"

"No, but-"

"Well, the will still sits as it was when I updated it when I was dying and nothing's going to change that, unless like I said you were pregnant which would be fabulous but-..."

"Wait...what? Fabulous?"

The day for her was only getting stranger. She wasn't even entirely sure if this was the same man she once emphatically called boss approximately three months ago.

She noticed as his eyes softened at the thought and the way his touch on her elbow became gentler. She felt his thumb brushing against the soft skin of her elbow and she regretfully forgave him right then and there.

"I couldn't think of anybody else I'd want to share that with, Pepper," he murmured softly as he looked at her sincerely, "You're perfect in every way and I'm perfect too so...we'd make perfect babies."

She rolled her eyes at him as the vague thought of the letter gradually slipped from her consciousness. The whole reason why she had been searching for that pen in the first place was to open the damn box of the stupid home pregnancy test kit. His incapability to own a scissors in their bathroom was beyond her. She really needed to start putting a bit more time into housekeeping. But between her side tracked discoveries she had completely forgotten and left the pregnancy test sitting on the sink upstairs.

It was her fifth test so far and all had one simple result. That unforgettable, unpredictable red positive line. And the best part about the whole situation was she hadn't told him yet for the simple reason that she was afraid he would get cold feet and dissemble their entire relationship.

She sighed and touched his cheek. She dropped the letter from her hand onto the closest table and he blinked curiously at her as she smiled at him.

"Well, you'll have to update your will I'm afraid," she said simply.

"Oh no," he murmured, "I already said I'm not changing it. Everything will be given to you should I ever die and that's final."

"Tony, but I-"

"Don't do that, 'Tony but I' thing you always do. I know how your seducing works," he mumbled, "And I'm not falling for it this time."

"-thought you said-"

"I refuse to listen," he protested as he pulled her to him and started pressing a trail of wet kisses down her neck.

"-that you'd change your mind if I was-"

"Mhmmm..." he hummed as he kissed her.

"-pregnant."

"Wait...what?"

She laughed as she held his head and mumbled, "I'm pregnant, Tony."

She watched as his brows sky rocketed before his lips curled brightly.


End file.
